The attached compact discs labeled xe2x80x9cCopy 1xe2x80x9dand xe2x80x9cCopy 2xe2x80x9d, which are identical, are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. The discs were created on Jun. 18, 2002 and include a computer program listing named BST99-1295335xe2x80x941, which is 890KB in size.
This invention generally relates to a method of and system for distributing medical information over a communications network, and more specifically to a method of and system for assigning increasing levels of security to portions of an individual""s medical records and linking each of the security levels to access security codes that must be supplied by the requester of the medical information in order to access the medical records.
When a patient is brought into a hospital for emergency care, it is very unlikely that the patient""s medical record will be present in the hospital. A patient""s medical record is very important, particularly in an emergency situation, as it typically contains information regarding the patient""s blood type, allergies, medical history, etc. Typically, such records are at the location where the patient receives the majority of his or her medical care. In most cases, this is the location of the patient""s primary care physician, thus making quick access to the record by the emergency care provider virtually impossible. Furthermore, even if the patient""s medical record is accessible, it is likely that much of the information in the record is scattered between several archives in various locations, is obsolete, redundant or indecipherable to the extent that it does not benefit the patient at the point of care.
Presently, the transfer of patient""s medical records between care providers is done in a number of different ways. Records can be transferred by phone, facsimile and overnight mail, however, these options are relatively slow, expensive and can be unreliable. The use of email for transferring medical records can be relatively simple and quick. However, email is typically too insecure for transferring the sensitive information contained in a patient""s medical record, and information can only be exchanged between parties that are aware of each other""s email addresses. Smart cards, which contain memory devices in which a patient""s medical data is stored, allow the patient to carry his or her medical records, thereby potentially enabling immediate access to the patient""s record. However, the cards are easily lost or misplaced, thus endangering the securing of the record, and smart cards must be compatible with the smart card reader at a particular medical location, which may not always be the case. Furthermore, since the smart card must be physically present at the time the information is needed, remote consultation is impossible. For example, if an ambulance is bringing a patient to the hospital, the information contained in the smart card cannot be accessed by care providers at the hospital until the patient arrives. A further disadvantage of the above methods is that they generally do not permit only selective access to the patient""s information, depending on the situation that has precipitated the need for the patient""s medical data. For example, if the patient suffers a broken bone, while information regarding the patient""s blood type and allergies might be necessary for the proper treatment of the injury, the patient""s cardiological or serological data is not. None of the above methods can prevent unnecessary medical data from being divulged to the medical care provider, thus potentially risking the patient""s privacy.
While the internet could be used to distribute medical records, there is presently no online system that is capable of securely distributing only the information from a patient""s medical record that is necessary for the situation that has required access to the record.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a method of and system for distributing medical information in which the medical care provider has quick access to a patient""s medical record, but only to the information within the medical record that is necessary for the proper treatment of the patient at that time.
The present invention is directed to a method of and system for distributing medical information over a communications network. A patient""s medical record is divided into a hierarchy of categories, each category having a level of privacy associated therewith which is greater than the previous level. The lowest level category could include information such as blood type and allergies, while a high-level category could include the patient""s HIV status. The patient constructs a list of access codes, wherein, the higher the level of the category, the more access codes are required to gain access to the category of the medical record. This enables the patient to control how much access to his or her medical records a particular medical care provider has, by selecting the access codes that are provided to the care provider.
According to the invention, a method for distributing health information includes the steps of generating health data representative of at least one set of health information for an individual, generating access priority data representative of an access priority associated with each of the at least one set of health information, the access priority being based on criteria for release authorization established by the individual, storing at a datastore the health data and associated access priority data and receiving from a requester, by way of a communications network, a request for at least one of the sets of health information, the request including access data correlated to an access priority. The method further includes the steps of processing the access data to determine whether the access data corresponds to the access priority criteria for the requested health information. When the access data corresponds to the access criteria for the requested health information, the requested health information is transmitted to the requestor by way of the communications network, and, when the access data fails to correspond to the access criteria, access to the requestor to the health information is denied. The communications network may be the Internet and the transmitted health information may be encrypted.
According to another embodiment of the invention, a method of distributing medical information for an individual over a communications network includes the steps of generating a plurality of security access codes, generating a plurality of hierarchical categories, ranging from a low security category to a high security category, categorizing the individual""s medical information into privacy levels ranging from a least private level to a most private level, inputting the individual""s categorized medical information into the plurality of hierarchical categories, the least private level being input into the low security category and the most private level being input into the high security category and assigning, to each of the categories, one or more of the access security codes, such that the medical information in each category will be released only if the assigned access security codes are received. The method further includes the steps of receiving, from a requester, one or more of the access security codes over the communications network, determining whether the received access security codes match one or more of the assigned access security codes and transmitting, to the requestor over the communications network, the medical information in the categories in which the received security access codes match the assigned security access codes.
A system for distributing medical information for an individual over a communications network according to the present invention includes a server system including a computer processor and associated memory, the server system having database of a plurality or hierarchical categories for the individual, the categories ranging from a low security category to a high security category, each of the categories having medical information of the information contained therein. The medical information ranges from least private information to most private information, the least private medical information being contained in the low security category and the most private medical information being contained in the high security category. Each of the categories have one or more security access codes assigned thereto. The system further includes a request system including a computer processor and associated memory, the requestor system inputting one or more of the security access codes to the server system over the communications network and an access determining device for transmitting, to the requester system, the medical information in each of the categories in which the input security access codes match the assigned security access codes. The system may further include a setup system, having a computer processor and associated memory, for inputting the medical information to the database. The security access codes may be defined by a user and assigned to the categories by the user through the setup system. More of the security access codes may be required to access the high security categories than the low security categories. The setup system and the requester system may be the same system. The setup system may be coupleable to said network by a wired or a wireless connection, and may be a personal computer, an interactive television system, a personal digital assistant or a cellular telephone.